Sath, a students’ group, organized a seminar on “Phenomenon Of Genocide in Modern Era” at Zoology Auditorium in #PunjabUniversity campus in #Chandigarh on 15 November 2018. The seminar was held in the memory of those victimized during the 1984 Sikh Genocide. In this seminar Dr Garga Chatterjee (Indian Statistical Institute), Sikh author Bhai Ajmer Singh and Parmjeet Singh (Editor, Sikh Siyasat News) presented their papers and shared their views.
Sukhwinder Singh, one of the organizers, welcomed the speakers and the audience and briefly introduced Sath and the topic of the seminar. He then invited Parmjeet Singh, Editor of Sikh Siyasat to make his presentation on topic “Stages of Genocide and 1984 Sikh Genocide”
Parmjeet Singh informed the audience about different stages of genocide as identified by the genocide studies scholars and said that how the term “Genocide” which was coined by Raphael Lamkin in 1944 and before that there was no specific law to provide punish for genocide as a crime before 1948. The genocide convention came into existence in 1948 after genocide during the World War II era as the Nazis lost the war and allied powers carried out process to provide for prevention and punishment for the crime of genocide.
He then explained what amounts to genocide in the international law. He explained different stages of genocide that are Classification, Identification, Dehumanization, Organization of massacre, Preparation then Genocide and explained further that the genocide does not end up with the massacre as denial is considered to be an unending stage of the genocide. Presenting examples related to the events of 1984 Sikh genocide he said that a comparative study of events of 1984 and the stages of genocide establish the fact of 1984 Sikh genocide. He also talked about international recognition of 1984 Sikh genocide and the policy of genocide adopted by the Indian state. He said that the Sikh students need to study the genocide as a crime in international law as wells as a phenomenon as the international law criminalizes only physical genocide as the genocide but the techniques of genocide also include political, social, economic, cultural, moral, biological tools that target the roots of the life of a national group.